Humanitarian Affairs Officer

AI summary

The Humanitarian Affairs Officer position at UNOCHA involves coordinating anticipatory action for climate hazards in Eastern and Southern Africa, engaging stakeholders, advocacy, resource mobilization, and monitoring. This junior-level role is based in Nairobi and supports disaster preparedness and resilience.

• Junior level role with UNOCHA in Nairobi.
• Focus on anticipatory action for climate resilience.
• Requires experience in humanitarian coordination and advocacy.

Description

Humanitarian Affairs Officer | UNV - United Nations Volunteers Humanitarian Affairs Officer UNV - United Nations Volunteers Nairobi International Junior level Application deadline: August 16, 2026 (22 days) Apply Summary by Impactpool The Humanitarian Affairs Officer position at UNOCHA involves coordinating and facilitating anticipatory action in response to climate-related hazards in Eastern and Southern Africa. The role includes engaging with various stakeholders, contributing to advocacy efforts, and supporting resource mobilization. The officer will assist in monitoring and reporting on anticipatory actions and provide support for field missions related to disaster preparedness. This position is crucial for enhancing resilience and ensuring effective humanitarian responses to climate-induced emergencies. Candidate Requirements: Experience in humanitarian coordination Knowledge of climate adaptation and disaster risk finance Strong communication and advocacy skills Ability to engage with diverse stakeholders Experience in resource mobilization and proposal writing Familiarity with monitoring and reporting processes Details Mission and objectives United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) Objective / Mission Statement: OCHA's mission is to: Mobilize and coordinate effective and principled humanitarian action in partnership with national and international actors in order to alleviate human suffering in disasters and emergencies. Context Established in 1991, under General Assembly resolution 16/182, UNOCHA coordinates humanitarian action to ensure crisis-affected people receive the assistance and protection they need. It works to overcome obstacles that impeded humanitarian assistance from reaching people affected by crises, and it provides leadership in mobilizing assistance and resources on behalf of the humanitarian system. This UNV assignment is in OCHA’s Regional Office for Southern, and Eastern Africa (ROSEA) based in Nairobi, Kenya. OCHA plays a central role in advancing Anticipatory Action (AA) as part of the humanitarian system’s efforts to mitigate escalating climate risks, enabling collective action ahead of predicted climate‑related hazards such as droughts, floods and cyclones to reduce their impact on vulnerable communities. It develops and supports collective Anticipatory Action frameworks that link climate risk analysis and early warning systems with pre‑agreed triggers, activities and pre‑arranged financing, ensuring action that is timelier, cost‑effective, dignified, and protective of lives and livelihoods. Through its financing tools, such as the CERF and country-based/regional pooled funds, technical expertise and partnerships, OCHA helps scale up and mainstream anticipatory and early action, strengthening resilience and safeguarding development gains in the face of increasingly frequent and severe climate shocks. Task description Under the overall supervision of the Humanitarian Affairs Officer – Anticipatory Approach, the UN Volunteer will undertake the following tasks: • Assist in facilitating regional coordination to scale up and mainstream anticipatory action through the regional working groups on AA in Eastern and Southern Africa; • Support engagement and effective partnerships with key stakeholders, including govern-ments, IGAD, SADC, UN agencies, NGOs, donors, IFIs, climate funds/actors, and private sector to advance anticipatory action in the region; • Contribute to collective advocacy efforts by preparing briefs, talking points, presentations and visibility materials on anticipatory action and its linkages with climate adaptation, disaster risk finance, preparedness and response; • Assist in monitoring and reporting on anticipatory action, including supporting documentation and dissemination of collective lessons learned and best practices, and regional dashboards; • Provide support to field missions, assessments and deployments related to disaster prepar-edness, anticipatory action and response for climate-induced emergencies, including docu-mentation of lessons learned and operational/coordination insights; • Support resource mobilization efforts through donor mapping, preparation of concept notes and proposals, and inputs to donor reports and briefings; • Participate in inter-agency meetings, consultations and events, and perform other duties as required to support effective emergency preparedness and response, including collective an-ticipatory action, for extreme climate risks in the region; and • Perform other duties as required to support the scaling up and mainstreaming of anticipatory action in the region. During the first month of the assignment, the UN Volunteer will work closely with his/her direct supervisor to finalize an agreed-upon work plan. The work plan should outline key objectives and activities and include regular check ins with the supervisor to review progress and receive performance feedback At Impactpool we do our best